Thanksgiving

It's November 24, 2011. Thanksgiving Day in most of North America. I have no problem thinking of a number of things I'm grateful for. God has truly blessed me in many ways. HE loves me and will forgive me thru His Son's blood. I have a wonderful, loving, supportive, beautiful wife. The same goes for our family-loving and supportive. We live in a place where God's beauty is on display daily, The Blue Ridge Mountains. I have one of exceedingly few doctors that recognized a disease that otherwise would've killed me before my 50th B-day. Interferon has stabilized and kept the disease in check for over 2 yrs, now. We are part of a church family that encourages and helps us build a better, loving relationship w/ our Father/God. We do not want for food or clean water. We have warm, comfortable clothing, a  roof over our heads and oil in a furnace that works. We have a fantastic landlord, who's concerned about our being warm.
Last, but not least, there's always "Curry", our Yorkie. He honestly seems to know when we need comfort, a smile or a laugh. He knows how to bring those results on, too.
Yep. I'm an extremely blessed man.
Thank YOU for this life, Father. You've been far more than generous and patient. Thank You for helping me to see that. I'm a better man, because of You.

Thought

Ya know, I've been thinking. The Christian "religion" is based on how immeasurably much our Father loves us. We are instructed in His Word to love others as Christ loves us and to help those in need. Yet, people choose to follow a god who says they're a martyr if, in blowing themselves up, they kill followers of other beliefs. They choose to follow a human whom is now deceased. They choose to worship trees, the moon, seasons, etc.. I'm not meaning to judge them. I just don't understand. His Word also tells us that there is no greater demonstration of love than when one person dies for another, say, jumping on a hand grenade in a fox hole to save his/her buddies.
By the way, I have a hard time with Gods' discipline, too. I don't want anybody to follow the enemy on the DOWN escalator. But, if ya think about it, there has to be some pretty heavy penalties to show that God is serious. If there were no punishment, what would be the point in any good. I read an article where a 15 yr old step sister sold her 7 yr old step sister during a party. That 7 yr old girl was gang raped by 5 people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can definitely see the need for Gods' heavy hand at times. I figure, though, that He is God. He knows what's best for the Big Pictures' sake. I'm not going to argue with Him. He knows the beginning, the end (so to speak) and everything in between. How can a person argue with that?

"...Love one another..."

Just before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He left what has come to be known as the "11th Commandment" with His disciples.
"Love one another as I have loved you".
He didn't leave any footnotes or exceptions. Why? Because a person's skin color has nothing to do with what is in their heart or what they are capable of. "Christians" that attempt to justify a narrow mind need to remember that Christ was a Jew, Aramaic (The original language for sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra), to be specific.
Jewish contributions to America's greatness? Julius Ochs Adler served as a Major-General in the U.S. Army in World Wars I & II. He received the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, Silver Star and Croix de Guerre (an award to allies of France and Belgium for acts of heroism involving combat with enemy forces). *Baruch Samuel Blumberg identified and developed the test and vaccine for the Hepatitis B virus *(Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; Wikiproject Biography, supported by the Science and academia work group, cited December 4, 2008).
African-Americans? Well, Benjamin Banneker built a clock completely of wood which ran for 40 years. George Washington Carver encouraged farmers to diversify their crops to sweet potatoes and peas, as heavy reliance on cotton leached vital nutrients from the soil. Through his research, 300 products were derived from the peanut and 118 products were derived from the sweet potato. Charles Drew discovered the modern processes for preserving blood for transfusions. Harriet Tubman's courage, as she ignored the Fugitive Slave Law and had a $40,000 reward being offered for her capture, lead about 300 slaves to freedom. Let's not forget the number of African-Americans that believed in and fought for the South during the Civil War (By the way, did you know that this war was NOT about slavery, but the Confederate states desire to secede from the union due to heavy taxation?).The list of contributions continues and is very impressive.
Arab-Americans? Dr. Michael E. Debakey was a world renowned American heart surgeon and helped develop the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or MASH. Charles Asshur Al-Wadad Elachi was a principal investigator on many projects sponsored by NASA, including the Shuttle Imaging Radar series, the Magellan imaging radar at Venus and the Cassini Titan radar (Titan being Saturn's largest moon).
Without folks of different ethnic and religious origins, America would be a very different place and certainly not the greatest country in the world.
Instead of letting hatred be the burden we carry, it would be much more productive to appreciate the contributions that races and religions from around the world have made to give The United States of America its status. Creationism leads to the conclusion that we're all related by virtue of Adam and Eve, anyway. As a matter of fact, Mr. Darwin never specified that there were white, black, yellow or Arab "ape-like creatures" which evolved into each race. We can't each move to our own planet. So, together, why don't we work on keeping this one livable?